Waterfall
by 6GunSally
Summary: FALL SERIES: A Series of one-shots focusing on the relationship between two characters (Not necessarily romantic). Phoenix Wright's near-death experience. (Shhhh... Be vewy vewy quiet. I'm hunting pwot bunnies...) Had to get this out of my head so I could actually focus on the other stories. One-shot. Fluffy with a dash of Phoenix/Maya. Just a dash ;). Cover art by Foxmi.


_**Disclaimer: Ace Attorney and all characters are copyright by CAPCOM; I'm just a fan imitating. The stories presented are influenced by the multiple games as well as the comic (Manga written by Kenji Kuroda).**_

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**Waterfall**

Phoenix Wright was one of the top defense attorneys in the country. After just over three years of practice, people were finally starting to stop calling him 'rookie'. The phone at the Wright Law offices was probably ringing off the hook. But he wasn't around to answer it.

No. He wasn't in his office. Not today. Not for the rest of the week.

Someone had decided he needed to do the Super Ultra Special course at Hazakura Temple. No nice, cozy, toilet-scrubbing for him this week. No.

Phoenix didn't remember agreeing to this. This was insanity.

He hugged himself against the relentless downpour. His teeth clattered like a roar in his head and he was shivering so violently he was sure his muscles would lock up from fatigue and he would keel over at some point—and probably drown.

"Nick!" Maya said grinning from her vantage on a nice sunny rock away from the waterfall. She was wearing a baseball cap that had the word 'coach' written in front and waving a stopwatch.

"Two minutes!" she shouted at him, "You're almost half-way done!"

Phoenix glanced at her for a moment before shutting his eyes against the water. Her voice had sounded tinny against the waterfall's roar, but he thought she said he was 'almost' done. Phoenix cursed the day he got tangled up with these spirit mediums and their 'training'.

Slow cold torture was more like it.

"Muh-m-m-m-maya!" He shouted back.

"Did you say something, Nick?"

He wrapped his arms more tightly around himself. It was like the cold was welling up inside him. He couldn't get warm. He'd probably never be warm again.

_How is this supposed to open up my inner eye?_

"Two minutes and forty seconds! Yay!"

(_Yay? What? I'm dying over here.)_

Phoenix began to curse his existence.

(_Why? Why dear God in heaven? Why me?!)_

"Three minutes!"

He tried to close his eyes, but they were still tight shut. He opened them, squinting against the water. Spots hovered in his vision from squeezing his eyes so tightly. Maya was waving and grinning from her rock.

"Three minutes and fifteen seconds!"

(_Please stop yelling the time… It's making this drag on more slowly…)_

He opened his mouth to shout at her. Beg for mercy, even. But all he could do was gasp and sputter in the water's flow. And shiver. He might've been crying too, but his tears were lost in the waterfall.

"Muh-muh-m-m-maya!"

He sucked in some water when he gasped and he started to cough. Then he gagged and doubled over plunging his head into the water. The rush of the waterfall was suddenly distant and subdued. He could hear high notes punctuating the steady roar of water.

Maya was probably shouting something at him.

_(I'm dying… This must be what dying is like…)_

Then as if he was suddenly struck by lightening, he felt it.

The awakening.

Light danced in his periphery. The earth was suddenly calm and quiet and still. He thought he could hear birds chirping. But he wasn't really hearing them. But then, he was.

It was like the memory of the sound.

Like he was far away and looking in on the world. Slowly surfacing from the depths of unknowing.

_(Geez… Am I dead…?)_

The light in his vision refracted as if there were crystals in his eyes. He was surrounded by color. He thought he could hear children laughing. Or maybe those voices were angels?

_(Phoenix, you are so dead…)_

The voices bubbled around him. He felt weightless now. He was floating.

The voices lilted around him. Falling soft and prettily, like sunlight through trees. Or a gentle snow. It drew him in. Like siren song.

_(Um… Really? I can't just go and die like this… I have clients that depend on me…)_

Time seemed to stop. It rested in perfect stillness with the world around him.

_(Oh the injustice of it all!)_

Suddenly arms clamped around his hips so tightly it hurt. He gasped.

And sucked in way too much water.

He was pulled out of the waterfall's path and half-thrown, half-shoved toward the edge of the pool. He started to cough so bad his throat hurt.

"Nick!" Maya was screaming at him, "Nick! Say something!"

He coughed some more. Then he threw up some water.

He was lying with his legs in the pool and his head and shoulders resting on the pebbly sand at the edge of the pool.

"Nick?"

He was gasping for air. His poor deprived lungs were desperate for air. He gasped and panted and spit up more water.

All he could do was lie there uselessly. Like a dying fish. But the sun was warm.

Just when he was starting to calm down and his racing heart started to slow, Maya slammed into him and clamped her mouth on his.

_(What the..?)_

The warm weight of her body pressed against his chest. He was starting to feel panic rise from lack of air—among other reasons.

Phoenix sat up and pushed her away.

"Maya—"

"I was giving you mouth to mouth, Nick… Look, I just saved you!"

_(Heh…)_

"That's not what they mean by mouth to mouth…"

Maya stared at him with that lost vapid innocence she was so good at portraying.

"Oh…" she said and then grinned, "Well, it worked didn't it?"

_(Is she serious?)_

"Kind of…"

"Did you open your third eye?"

"My wha—"

_(You're here for training, remember?)_

"Oh yeah," Phoenix tried to sit up a little more. Maya was still sitting on him.

"I wonder how much power a man would have?" Maya said with her head cocked and one eye closed as she contemplated the possibility of the first male spirit medium of the Kurain Technique.

_(Yeah, I'm so not a spirit medium…)_

"Maya, I don't think I want to pursue this anymore."

"You mean," she raised a hand to her mouth in shock, "You're just going to quit on me like that?"

"I'm… I'm a lawyer, Maya, not a spirit medium."

She held up her stopwatch, "You were only forty seconds away this time."

"Yeah, but…"

She stared at him with utter disappointment. He shoulders sagged and her bottom lip started to jut out.

_(Does she have to look at me like that?)_

Maya grinned suddenly, "That's okay, Nick. You're a guy anyway—so you probably would have never gotten good enough to channel any spirits."

_(Gee… That's too bad.)_

"Fortunately," Maya said and held up an index finger, "The Master of Kurain has just discovered the 'Life Saving Miracle Mouth to Mouth Technique'. This is the first time I get to add a scroll on a new technique—ever!"

_(Heh… The life saving miracle mouth to mouth… Oh Maya…)_

"You should take me into town and buy me a burger to celebrate!"

Phoenix looked around anxiously, "Maya, what if Pearl finds out?"

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_**A/N: Thanks for reading!**_

_I'd like to dedicate this one-shot to Wanadoos who just published her first story earlier today. That's a big deal! Keep up the good work._

_Anybody else, nice of you to check this one out! This is me chasing down plot bunnies and clubbing them with a heavy tome! (Like the one that transports Maya and Phoenix in the magical world where they get to stand a witch trial and meet Luke and Professor Layton)_

_That's right! I know it's about a week late, but word is Level-5 is releasing the Crossover 'Professor Layton Vs. Phoenix Wright in early 2014. (That should give me time to beat AA5—LOL)_

_Yay! (I'm such a fan-nerd-weirdo)_

_On another note… I went and perused Tumbler and Deviant Art looking for the perfect cover pic for this one-shot… There are more pictures of Phoenix kissing Edgeworth than of Phoenix kissing Maya…o.O _

_(Well, it is Edgeworth…)_

_I guess I'll have to draw something when I get time (unless someone wants to hook me up?)_


End file.
